Why is Local Underwriting So Important?

What is an underwriter?

The underwriter has the responsibility of making the yes-or-no decision on every loan that passes through a mortgage company. Their name is on every transaction that is closed. They are in-charge of analyzing the risk of approving a buyer get a loan. If that loan ever goes into default or is fraudulent, the first person held responsible for that is the underwriter. So, they look for risks, and determine whether a buyer actually qualifies for the loan or not.

Real estate agents and buyers don’t actually speak to the underwriter because oftentimes, a good mortgage officer, can answer all these questions they may have about the loan.

What are the advantages of a mortgage company with a local underwriting team?

Often, when we recommend a mortgage lender to buyers, we recommend those with a local, in-house, underwriting team. However, we fail to communicate why this is so important.

So we asked George Kemble of Allied Mortgage the same question. “Why is it so important for a mortgage lender to have its own local underwriting team?”

He said, "the most important thing to have when a buyer and a mortgage company are working together are communication and clarity of transaction. Communication begins at mortgage level. If the mortgage company is doing a great job at letting the borrower know where the status of their loan is, the better the borrower will feel about the transaction."

According to George, Allied Mortgage has their underwriting team not only local... but in their actual office. So, if there are questions about the transaction, they can have the answers right away because their underwriter is in the same office. Having an underwriter in your office means that decisions could come through faster than when your underwriting team is in another state, or even across the United States. More importantly a local understanding will have a better understanding of the local real estate market, housing, ownership style, job market, employment, cost of living, and more.

If a mortgage company wants the underwriting process to be done as quick as possible, then they certainly need local underwriting!